Newsletter ep. 117: finish line feels

I was looking for a photo from the race this weekend that showed Amanda Wendorff and I running shoulder-to-shoulder the last few miles, but all I could find were pictures of us getting photo bombed by age group guys. So instead here’s a pic of me trying to hang in there on my own.

Here’s the thing I want to say about having a run buddy for four miles or so at the end. I had a bad (though entirely predictable) time in the middle of the bike and got hard dropped. Amanda had a bad time on the run. And so I caught up to her and then we ran together and kept each other pushing all the way to the finish. But it wasn’t because we sang kumbaya and held hands; it was *because* we kept trying to beat each other. I ran hard trying to drop her and I kept running hard knowing she was right there. Then she ran hard opening a gap on me and I dragged myself back. And in that last mile, trying to make my move and hold on to the “sprint,” I ran the hardest I had since the beginning — when I had also been trying to catch girls.

In the middle of the blurriness, it made me think of something Sara said on the podcast once: You respect your competition by trying your hardest. Neither of us was having our best days and neither of us would have kept at it if we hadn’t known the other one was right there also going as hard as they could.

That’s what racing is. And every time I think about all the reasons people don’t want to upgrade to the elite/pro field, how hard it can be sometimes and how little room there is for error, I think about the racing and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

(Photo: from Taryn’s husband Marion)

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All the feelings

Speaking of all the finish line feels: Check out the photo gallery of the last minutes before the women’s Olympic Trials Qualifying time at CIM this weekend. (Or watch the video of the women who just made it.)

Of note: both pro triathlete Haley Chura and retired pro triathlete Ruth Brennan Morrey ran OTQ times. (It’ll be Haley’s third Olympic Trials; she raced two swimming trials back in the 2000s, which has to be some kind of noteworthy.) Sarah Piampiano will also try to run an OTQ in January. How many triathletes will ultimately be racing in Atlanta?

The high school cross country champs were also this weekend — and Fast Women has a pretty good nuanced look at how much we should glamorize and hype high school runners, and what the cost of that is, but tell me you don’t love everything about the photos of these girls winning.

I think the reason we love finish line photos like this is because it reminds us of why. Why we do all the other stuff anyway.

Meanwhile, in Bahrain

The other reason why: so we can go fast, right? Over in Bahrain, the 70.3 times were predictably insane. Kristian Blummenfelt went 3:25 — beating the “legends” relay in the process btw. And Holly Lawrence went 3:52.

Now, of course, both those athletes are nutty good athletes, but every damn year the Bahrain race is home to times that just don’t seem to be matched anywhere else. A few people have pointed out the power on Blummenfelt’s Strava doesn’t quite seem to match the time — ie. that shit is short or there’s something going on. (Brad put it even more directly on Twitter, which is both dick and hilarious. Which is also Twitter’s motto.)

The other thing that happens at Bahrain every year is the Bahrain 13 team has team camp and runs some relays, goes to some schools, and shares a lot of photos of extravagant swag. I can never quite decide how I feel about it — I understand the arguments — but the NYT article about Saudi Arabia using major events to “sports wash” seems apropos here. 

Wait, the PTO are really for real?

One other relatively big piece of news: It sounds like the Pro Triathletes Organisation may actually have some funding, may actually be getting off the ground, and may actually make the Collins Cup happen this year.

A deck appears to be making the rounds to the top pros outlining the case for what the PTO wants to do, how much they can pay, where they’ve lined up money, and what they have planned. I expect an announcement soon, like maybe this weekend….

Maybe we just need to explain to them how to announce their announcements. At least learn one thing from Ironman.

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• Tommy Zaferes has been doing a breakdown of the ITU top 10 on his Instagram. Worth a browse. (Instagram)
   
• Also on Insta, Eric Lagerstrom almost got taken out by a dog during Indian Wells (before ultimately getting second). Guys, you gotta beware of the dogs. (Instagram)
   
• Gwen announced she’ll be going for the Olympics still, but on the track, not the marathon. (Youtube)
   
• Nike faced a protest of its own employees over Salazar. Also sounds like people who were witnesses against him faced death threats. Though people keep buying the shoes anyways obvs. (New York Times/Telegraph/Twitter)
   
• Kara Goucher had a three-part conversation with Sally Bergesen about the state of the sport. (Oiselle)
   
• Rachel McKinnon’s wrote an op-ed about what it’s been like to win as a trans women and then deal with the hate. (New York Times)
   
• Women who benefited from Title IX are now in positions of power and are donating to women’s sports. (New York Times)
   
• Why don’t women bike commute? (Quartz)
   
• OK, so yes, the shoe debate is crazy. But the time it happened before is even crazier. (Sports Illustrated)
   
• I think this was supposed to be a heart-warming story about how Pete Carroll lets his players fly first class after they win, but all I kept thinking was: Wait, wtf, the players *don’t* always fly first class but the coaches do? That is some bullshit. (ESPN)
   
• This interactive visualization of air pollution around the world would probably be more interesting for me personally if our massive fires here hadn’t tilted the data. (New York Times)
   
• In general, I think when people wring their hands about online outrage what they’re really wringing their hands about is that those who once did not have a voice to express criticism now do. In general, though online mobs also terrify me. And so, I can not imagine a public lands black list is a good solution for anything. (Outside)
   
• In today’s random thing my dad sent me: What if one game really did change the rest of your life — and not in a good way? (nj.com)

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Thoughts & comments

– We’ve actually gotten a surprisingly large amount of AMA questions, but a reminder: You can send in any question you want and we’ll record an AMA episode next week before the holidays. 

– There’s some discussion about whether or not Ironman is a dictatorship or a benevolent dictatorship. I say benevolent. Like, guys, think about what a non-benevolent dictatorship would look like?

– Also. A lot of you came up to me IRL at Indian Wells and many many yelled at me during that run and kept me moving and reminded me I was so. damn. close. to off-season. Hello to all of you!

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‘If We Were Riding’ is a weekly triathlon-ish newsletter written by Kelly O’Mara and produced by Live Feisty Media. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every Wednesday morning. You can also read past issues. This episode is from Dec. 11, 2019.